the essential
BB’s life… Everything has been said. Everything has been written. Well almost. Nicolas Charrier, Brigitte Bardot’s only child, grew up in Tarn, in the family of his father Jacques Charrier. Here is his story.
“In 1971, appointed editor-in-chief of the Dépêche du Midi in Castres, my predecessor left me a written instruction. He explained that BB’s son lived with his father’s relatives in Roquecourbe, but that they wanted to keep this secret presence “, remembers Jean-Pierre Gaubert. From 1970 to 1978, it was in complete anonymity that the son of Brigitte Bardot and Jacques Charrier used the bottom of his pants on the benches of college, then of the Barral high school in Castres.
A birth associated with trauma
“When [il] was born in 1960, there was hysteria around me. It was madness. The delivery room set up in my house, the photographers behind the windows, those who disguised themselves as doctors to surprise me. There was no privacy. It was terrible. I associated the birth of my son with this trauma. And it was Nicolas who bore the consequences.”
The former icon of French cinema confided in Point de vue magazine in August 2020. These comments largely explain the almost non-existent relationship she will have with her only child. His birth, on January 11, 1960, was a global event.
Her parents fell in love during the filming of “Babette Goes to War”. The romance is told, day after day, in the media. It ended in 1963 with a divorce. The sex symbol of the Sixties, a fantasy of men and an idol of young girls, collected lovers and opened an era of feminine and sexual emancipation.
It seems that the most beautiful girl in the world can only give what she has. That’s already a lot… but not enough to raise your child. The father will therefore have custody.
A refuge in Roquecourbe
Far from the crowds and the spotlight, to protect him from the paparazzi and offer him a “normal” childhood, Jacques Charrier chose Tarn, where part of his family lives. This is how Nicolas will live happily, in the house of his aunt Evelyne and his uncle, a doctor in Castres at Laboratoires Pierre Fabre. On the right bank of the Agout, between Roquecourbe and Vabre, we only see the entrance gate to the residence.
DDM – R.B
“It is located well back from the road, in a bend, the only one that requires you to slow down when going to Roquecourbe,” confides Jacques Pons, our Vabre correspondent. “Here, everyone calls it the Charrier bend.” In this mountain village, few are aware that Bardot’s son grew up there. Raised studious and discreet, Nicolas obtained his baccalaureate at Barral high school at the age of 18
“Beautiful as a god”
Retired in Castres, a former medical secretary in a dental office has pleasant memories of this teenager: “I see a boy come in as handsome as a god. He is tall, very built. I ask the doctor who he is. He replies: He’s Bardot’s son.”
Having become a high school graduate, very proud, Nicolas tells her this good news: “He promises to come back. I never saw him again,” she says, with a hint of regret in her voice. “BB visited her son in Castres at least once,” assures Jean-Pierre Gaubert. “I learned about it from a hotelier in Salvages. She had lunch there.”
In the restaurant’s guestbook, the star congratulated the chef in a few words and scribbled a daisy. Just below, a customer had written: “I have never had luck in my life”. With BB, in the same place, the same day, but not at the same time… we understand his frustration.
Today, Nicolas Charrier lives in Norway. A lot of water has since flowed under the Agout bridges over the past half-century. Relations between BB and his son seem to have been established. But that is another story.
